Anchoring in the political reality of the late 2000s is not devoid of originality, Stuart Neville developing a plot around the controversial figure of an old murderer activist of the IRA, Gerry Fegan, whose penance is not limited to the prison sentence, as heavy as it is. The atonement precisely proportionate to twelve murders committed as part of an alleged political action seems to be driven by some supra-terrestrial forces spectral relieving the guilt of the offender, a recluse in alcoholism cathalyseur ...
What follows is a series of orchestrated liquidations by "followers" of a man determined to heal her inner scars to find his place in his community. Saving (from a certain point of view), this quest disposal sponsors murders or those who did not hamper the implementation of these homicides encounters the fragile political stability of a State should be preserve.
The manhunt is twofold and offers the opportunity to describe Stuart Neville uncompromising and very disenchanted the current Northern Ireland: the Areopagus of corrupt and cynical politicians, her former activists cohort of IRA manipulators desperate to save their financial interests and act in the name of a misguided ideology, the difficult reconciliation between nationalists and unionists interests (the delicate operation of Stormont Parliament), confined the questions of collective responsibility in the tragedy of tragedies humans ...
A constant voltage infused the story tends to captivate the reader cloistered in a stifling atmosphere, however, leaving room for an emotional connection between the protagonist and an Irish, Mary McKenna, divorced within the family clan for having colluded with a Protestant policeman (character that is found in Collusion, following the adventures of Fegan).
The layout is clever skits and controlled, however, the final sequence of the barn and shooting takes somewhat in length, eyeing to the phase of the thriller action by breaking with the unspectacular content of a story whose heavy atmosphere settled gradually.
Served by writing (and / or translation) without affectation that perfectly combines the atmosphere of storytelling, The Ghosts of Belfast is a major achievement in the register of noir.
